Confined
by CrazyMichelle
Summary: After an attempted suicide, Gaara was sent to one of Konoha's best institutions for those with mental and emotional issues. There he learns to cope with his life and meets someone who just may give him the reason to live it. GaaLee with slight NaruSasu
1. Arrival

The lights shone brightly, reflecting off of the sterile white walls. Dark-lined eyes squinted against the harshness of it, their owner shifting in his wheelchair. His vision was unfocused, mind too lost in itself to pay much attention to his surroundings. Later he would remember the walk to the institution as little more than a long stretch of white hallway dotted with windows that looked out to onto a wide, fenced in courtyard and the embarrassment of having to be pushed when he was very capable of walking.

Finally they stopped in front of a large, reinforced door. The man escorting him walked forward, pulling a key forth from his pocket and unlocking the door before doubling back to push the boy inside.

The others were gathered around a long table, listening quietly to a woman with long, glistening hair that was so dark it shone blue. She spoke in soft, quiet tones, but commanded the attention of the gathered group with a silent authority. Even so, the boy could feel eyes on his back as he was wheeled to the side of a desk. The man seated at it glanced up with eyes dark as coal and smiled a white, toothy grin.

"Ah, is this Gaara? Welcome, welcome. Please, take a seat. My name is Maito, but everyone calls me Gai. It's nice to meet you." He extended a large, calloused hand forward. The redhead merely stared at it as he stood and sat in the chair situated across from the man. Gai pulled back, still smiling, but the expression had faded a little around the edges.

"Ah, it's quite alright." He said, as if the boy had apologized for his lack of greeting, "I'm sure you weren't expecting this kind of welcome. Anyways, I run the morning shift here at the Konoha Psych Center. You'll meet the night workers in a few hours, along with the volunteers that come in at various times. You're lucky today, you'll have missed the school session once you get settled. Now, while we get your other paperwork ready, you'll need to fill out this packet. Don't worry about anything, just fill it out truthfully and as accurately as you can. We don't judge here." He flashed another dazzling smile as he finished, handing the boy a stack of stapled papers. Gaara stared blankly at it for a moment before pulling it towards himself and beginning to fill it out.

He answered the first half quickly, signing his name, age, and other such hard facts with ease. However, he began to hesitate as the answers asked more personal, lengthy questions. But after a few seconds of though, he decided to resort to cold, hard truth without any unneeded emotional details. After all, Gaara didn't believe in emotions, despite feeling them. He merely thought of them as figments of his mind and imagination.

**Reason for admittance into Konoha Psych Center:**_  
Attempted suicide by pills_

He answered the remaining questions mechanically, thinking back to his reason for being sent there,

It had started a few night prior… No. Truthfully, it had started at his birth, and worsened over the years until a few nights ago, where it had become unbearable. Blamed for his mother's death at an early age, called a monster by father and siblings alike, Gaara had never known love and therefore knew no reason to live. Since he was young he had wanted to die, but never had the means to bring about his own demise. At first he had hoped that as his father beat him he would go farther than he had ever done, cross that one last threshold and give his son his one true wish and end it all.

But the years passed and still Gaara lived. His father failed in the mission silently given to him by his youngest child. So the redhead was forced to find his own way down death's path.

At first he attempted the most obvious, gruesome ways. He tried knives and cutting, but it was almost as if an invisible force field prevented any sharp instrument from touching his flesh. For years he tried and failed. Then, finally, he heard of overdosing on drugs. That night had been the first night he tried it.

After a severe beating from his father and yet another failed attempt to procure help from his siblings, Gaara had decided that that night was the night. With his mind a fuzzy, apathetic, jumbled mess, he walked straight into the kitchen, expecting resistance but getting none. His brother and sister had fled to their rooms at the sound of his screams, retreating to the little bit of silence they could obtain behind closed doors. He grabbed a bottle from above the sink, where the medicines were kept, and opened it in one fluid motion. He didn't check the label, just downed twelve of the light blue pills, dry. He had trouble swallowing them, but after a few attempts every one of them had finally slid down his throat. The bottle he tossed aside, the remaining pills scattering across the floor in every direction, but he didn't care.

A sound of movement came from the sitting room and Gaara glanced up, before turning and slipping out the back door into the night. A breeze was cool against his warm face. He walked slowly over to the swing and sat down. It was several minutes before he head the door open.

"Boy!"

Gaara ignored the shout, remaining seated where he was. The man who was his father marched over and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him from the swing.

"Why's there shit strewn all over the fucking place?" He yelled, dragging his offspring through the open door and throwing him down to the floor, "Pick it up."

Gaara obediently went to work, collecting each individual pill into his hand. As he went to fetch the container to put them back into, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. His father was peering down at the contents of his son's hands, momentarily puzzled. Then a sudden realization crossed across his face.

"Did you… these… What the FUCK did you DO?!" He roared, lifting Gaara off the ground and into the air, "How many did you take?! How many?!" He shook the redhead roughly; Gaara could feel his teeth rattle from the force. When his father finally ceased, he took a breath to answer, but was cut off.

"Throw it up! Throw it up NOW!" He screamed, as he forcefully shoved his fingers down his son's throat. Gaara gagged, choking, but his father didn't stop until he felt the bile rise up at his fingertips. The liquid that spewed from the boy's mouth was the same bluish tinge as the pills he had taken. Seconds after the stream hit the floor with a sickening splat the fingers were in Gaara's mouth again. Relentlessly his father forced him to regurgitate until nothing was left in the boy's stomach. Gaara felt dizzy, his throat burning from the constant rise of bile. He struggled to stand up as his father screamed curses at him, and slapped him across the face for his stupidity.

His memories from then on were fuzzy, like a film had been placed over his mind that made recollections blurry and out of focus. He had little sense of time, the events seeming to flow together.

His sister coming from her room, shouting at their father and panicking as she realized what had happened…

Her yell attracting Kankuro, who stood there gaping like some kind of fish…

A phone being dialed, a frantic Temari speaking while their father shouted and tried to wrestle the phone from her…

Kankuro snapping out of it and coming to his sisters aide, holding off their father as she completed the call…

Sirens, the flashing of lights, being carried off in a stretcher to the hospital…

From there on, his memories were even more vague. He hardly remembered the night spent in the hospital, the blood tests and observation. His first clear memory was waking up this morning and being hauled to this facility.

"Are you finished?" The man called Gai asked, and Gaara glanced up in surprise to find the man watching him as he zoned out. He murmured a short affirmative and handed over his packet. Gai smiled, thanking him.

"Now, you'll be in room 9 with a boy named Sasuke. I'll show you to your room after we do a full body check and get you some proper clothes. Follow me, please."

Gaara obeyed silently, following the adult to what was apparently the laundry room. He was asked to remove his clothes, and Gai, somewhat embarrassed, hurried along to record the various injuries on the boy's person and checked to make sure he wasn't concealing anything before instructing the boy to dress again.

"Oh, don't worry, I've got the laundry, I-- What? There's someone…?" The young man who entered seemed like a younger version of Gai at first glance. His hair was the same shining ebony, his eyebrows near the same thickness. But at closer inspection , the facial features were widely different. While Gai had a large, pronounced nose and slightly narrow eyes, this new male had a smaller, more average nose with wide, round eyes.

"LEE!"

At Gai's shout the younger male started, seeming realize at that moment what he was looking at. His face turned beet red as Gaara merely stared, completely naked but not seeming to care.

"GAH! Omigod, I'm so sorry!! I was just--" He shouted, closing his eyes tightly and covering them with his hands for extra measure.

"Lee! Get out!"

"Yes!!" He backed hurriedly out of the room, shutting the door quickly behind him. Gai sighed and turned to Gaara, apologizing profusely. The redhead merely shrugged and pulled on the robe the hospital had given him. As Gai apologized enough to his tastes, he took Gaara to a stack of shelves piled with clothes. The boy chose an outfit, then was escorted out and to the back of the building to his room after obtaining a towel and soap along the way. The door was like any other but for the large, black nine painted on the front.

"I really am sorry. I can assure you something like that won't happen again. Lee is a fairly new volunteer, not used to all the customs and procedures of this facility. Though his youthfulness and energy are…"

Gaara zoned out at this point, waiting patiently until Gai finished his spiel before nodding, murmuring an "It's alright."

"Alright, now go shower and meet the group out here at the table. There'll be another group soon, and you can join them."

Gaara nodded again. When at last Gai turned away, he entered his room and headed for the second door, which obviously lead to the bathroom. He glanced over at the shower as he set his items on the toilet seat. It was missing a curtain and the shower head was built into the mall instead of sticking out like most. They must really take the safety of their patients seriously here.

With a sigh, Gaara once again removed his robe and stepped onto the porcelain of the shower floor. Twisting the handle, he allowed the freezing stream of water to send a shock down his spine until it gradually warmed. Then, he began to bathe, all the while wondering what was in store for him once he walked back out into the lobby, which was now to be his world for a currently unknown amount of time.


	2. First Session

Clean and dressed, Gaara walked out of his room with his towel and robe in tow. For a moment he stood confused as to what to do with them until a kind adult with her brown hair pulled up into two buns on either side of her head pointed out the hamper to him. He muttered a short thanks, dumping the clothing into the bin and turning to look at the group. He hesitated before taking a breath and walking forward to choose an empty seat.

He had never been much of a people person. He didn't talk much to strangers; he hardly spoke to his own family. The only time words seemed to flow from his mouth was when he snapped. Then they would fly forth in screams and shouts, oftentimes barely comprehensible. So, needless to say, he wasn't used to normal conversation.

Speaking of, the group of teens gathered at the table were engrossed in their own conversation. Gaara, with the little conversation skills he had and the lack of experience in the current subject matter of drugs, chose to remain silent. Instead he half-listened to what was being said while observing those who were speaking.

There were five others besides him and apparently only one other male, who sat across the table and whom Gaara assumed was his roommate, Sasuke. His raven hair was short in the back and long in the front, bangs falling into his eyes as he leaned back against his chair, blatantly ignoring the girls around him trying to get his attention. As Gaara watched, the boy looked up and caught his eye with a glare, crossing arms with heavily bandaged wrists across his chest. The redhead continued to keep eye contact for a moment before blinking and looking to the next person with disinterest.

Beside Sasuke sat Karin, another redhead (though it was obviously not her actual color as it seemed more of a dark pink) who wore dark-framed glasses and was continually focusing her attention on Sasuke, trying to bring him into the conversation by asking his opinion or directing her statements at him. Though her attempts were basically ignored, she persisted, determined. She glanced at Gaara a couple of times, attempting to bring him in the conversation as well, but when he merely muttered a blunt response and then ignored her attentions, she turned back to the other boy. Apparently Gaara didn't have enough of a dark and mysterious aura to interest her much.

After her was a redhead with a sharp tongue and sailor's mouth. Her name was Tayuya and she seemed to know more about alcohol than actual drugs, though she spoke more than the others, adding in her own opinion to every comment made in the conversation. She out of all the others seemed least interested in the boys.

Across from her appeared to be a pretty girl with long, dark hair and brown eyes. She was soft-spoken but open enough, adding in the conversation every once in a while, but seeming to have only a little to say on the current subject. She was addressed as Haku. It was a minute or so in to his observation that Gaara felt a strange vibe, as if something was off but he couldn't quite place what it was until he noticed her flat chest. Haku was a boy. Gaara blinked with slight surprise, but instead of lingering on the oddess of it, moved on to the next person.

The expert on substances and final member of the group was Konan, an older girl with bright blue hair. She had a noticeable hole in her nose and under her lips where piercings had been. As she moved, a flash of dark skin drew Gaara's eye to her wrist, which was decorated with the tattoo of a rose who's thorny stem wrapped around her arm to her elbow. As his bright eyes followed the pattern, she addressed him, questioning his reason for being there. The other eyes turned to focus their attention on the newcomer, most with interest.

"Attempted suicide." He said shortly in his monotone voice. Several of the gathered nodded.

"Yeah, same. How'd you try?" Haku asked gently, tilting his head slightly as he spoke.

"Pills."

"Damn, you OD'd?" said Tayuya, "On what?"

Gaara repeated the foreign sounding name of the substance he had heard the doctors mention. Tayuya looked to Konan as if asking if she had heard of it, but the other girl shook her head.

"Fuck. What kind of shit is that, man?"

"I don't know. I just took it." Gaara shrugged as he spoke. Konan opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the arrival of a blonde woman with a large bust.

"Oh good, you're already on the subject. Then we'll just jump right in, shall we?" She said loudly, looking from one teen to the other. As her eyes reached Gaara they paused. "Ah, seems like we have a newcomer. Well then, we'll go through the introduction thing then. I'm Tsunade and this is the Substance Abuse Group. We'll start with Konan and go around introducing ourselves and the reasons why we're here." She waved a hand at the blue-haired female, indicating for her to start.

"My name's Konan, and I'm here because of an overdose of heroin."

"Good, good. Next?" Tsunade nodded to Haku.

"I'm Haku, and I'm here because I threatened to kill myself."

"Tayuya. I'm here because of my stupid fucking parents being jackasses."

"Right, and what did _you_ do to get sent here?" Tsunade sighed, slight annoyance permeating through her voice. This was apparently not the first time the girl had tried to blame her parents.

"Fine, fine. Damn. I _apparently _said I'd fucking kill myself."

"Language." Tsunade warned before looking to Tayuya's right for the next person.

"My name's Karin, and I also threatened to kill myself."

"…Sasuke, self mutilation."

Finally it had circled around the table to Gaara. He looked up at Tsunade's expectant eyes and answered with only slightly more detail than Sasuke had.

"Gaara, attempted suicide by pills."

Tsunade nodded, "So, there are at least two people here because of drugs. Let's start with Konan. Why did you take heroin in the first place?"

"I like how it makes me feel."

"Did you ever think of the long-term effects of it on your body?"

"Not really."

"Well, you should take a moment to think about it next time. Do you even know the possible side effects? Heroin and other such illegal drugs can cause various situations such as collapsed veins, disease from needle use, heart infections, etc. They can put you in a coma or kill you. We've had kids come in here in a drug induced psychosis and think all kinds of crazy things. One boy who came in continually thought he was at a gas station and kept trying to go outside to fill up his truck." There were a few chuckles at this, but Tsunade scowled and shook her head. "You may think it's funny now, but imagine yourself in that position. His parents came to visit him and he didn't even recognize them. His mother was in tears every time she came, crying and praying that that day would be the day her boy would snap out of the psychosis. He finally did, but it took weeks. Others are put in a coma for months or longer. Some never wake up or snap out of it. It's something to think about next time you do drugs. Are you willing to risk it?" She said, looking at each one of them in turn. They were all silent.

"Some of you think that you're young and invincible. Well, you brats may be young, but you're just as susceptible to everything as we are. You just have a longer amount of life to lose."

All was quiet for a moment as again Tsunade glanced at each teenager as if willing one of them to speak. When none did, she went on.

"So, how about you, Gaara? Were you thinking of possible side effects of the pills you took?"

The redhead shook his head.

"And what did you take?"

For the second time within the hour Gaara repeated the name of the medication.

"Prescription drug?" Tsunade asked.

The boy nodded.

"Those can be just as dangerous if taken in a way not ordered by a medical professional. They can have the same side effects, plus some unknown…"

Gaara zoned out at this point, uninterested in the topic at hand. He had never been into drugs, he had seen no real point in it. The only thing he had considered them for was death. He didn't care about any side effects besides that.

As Tsunade continued to speak and warn the group about the negatives, Gaara watched the other's reactions. Haku seemed engrossed in the conversation, eyes wide with a slight fear in them. Konan seemed bored, like she had heard it all before and didn't buy it. Sasuke seemed annoyed, though whether it was at Tsunade's speech or Karin's still constant attempts to gain his attentions. Tayuya seemed hardly able to remain silent. She sat with her lips pursed, an irritated look in her eye.

Finally Tsunade finished, and after a few more conversational exchanges with the teens, she left them to themselves to wait for the next councilor.

Gaara sighed lightly, a small exhale of breath, already bored and tired of this place. Was this how it was going to be for the next few weeks?


End file.
